One of tennis's most experienced administrators suspects Andrew Abdo has bitten off more than he can chew and will quickly relinquish his Australian Open (AO) tournament director role.
After six years as NRL chief executive, Abdo replaced Craig Tiley as boss of Tennis Australia (TA) in August and will run the Australian Open for the first time in January.
Peter Johnston, who served as AO deputy tournament director for eight years, firstly under Paul McNamee, then Tiley, is tipping it will also be Abdo's last crack at presiding over the biggest event on the annual Australian sporting calendar.
Not because he questions Abdo's smarts, but more that he believes the 49-year-old doesn't quite know what he's in for controlling the billion-dollar behemoth while also dealing with Australia's player development crisis - and everything else.
"He just hasn't had the time to really dissect every aspect of the business," Johnston told AAP on Tuesday.
"And probably with the clock ticking to do the (Open) launch and this year's event, given there was a fair bit of stuff in place already, I would think he'd be assessing it and when he sees the magnitude of it and the magnitude of the rest of the job, it's just a massive gig."
Asked if he believed Abdo would pass the AO role on after 2027, Johnston said: "I think he has to".
"Because this is a moment in time. This is when everybody wants to have a review of how player development is going, how's participation going, what's our broadcast deals like for the sport all year round.
"These are all big things and then there's the Australian Open itself."
Johnston, who is now tournament director for two WTA events, one ATP 250 and the pre-Australian Open's Kooyong Classic, barely touched the surface when pointing out some of the endless challenges Abdo will face at the Melbourne grand slam.
"There's so many areas that he needs to be fully across, but have captains of those," said the long-time former TA administrator and vice-president of WTA operations.
"There's so many decisions that you have to be able to make in real time, and you have to be able to sell to key stakeholders, the broadcasters and you've got to set the schedule well in advance to satisfy the broadcasters internationally, the sponsors, all stakeholders.
"But then during the tournament, when you get things like the heat rule, being across that and how that influences scheduling, players, dealing with player requests.
"You've got to be the authority, the absolute authority, because people look to the tournament director role as the authority. It's going to be difficult."
With the greatest respect, Johnston wonders if the South African has the tennis acumen to run the Open, at least so soon after being appointed.
"It's being able to manage unexpected things," Tiley's former 2IC said.
"That's going to be where the first port of call is, usually the tournament director. That's what's going to be the challenge.
"He's got the job and got massive credibility in his career, and I don't want this to be too much of a critique of him - we don't know him yet, really - but it's a big time for the sport."
Earning the trust and respect of players and demanding agents took Tiley years and Abdo will present as a relatively anonymous figure to the likes of world No.1 Jannik Sinner and defending men's Open champ Carlos Alcaraz.
"They're all the things that he'll have to wrestle with," Johnston said.
"Which is why I think inevitably, you just can't do all of that. It's too big."